Former coach Kearney filing lawsuit against UT

Bev Kearney won six national championships at Texas. (Ralph Barrera/Associated Press)

AUSTIN – Alleging Texas discriminated against her based on her race and gender and retaliated against her by forcing her to resign last January, former Longhorns women’s track and field coach Bev Kearney filed a long-awaited lawsuit against the school on Thursday.

Kearney, who won six national championships at UT, filed an official charge of discrimination last spring, alleging “a severely hostile working environment.” In her lawsuit, filed in Travis County District Court and obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, she seeks damages of more than $1 million, including lost and future wages and compensation for mental anguish and legal fees.

Kearney was placed on administrative leave late in 2012 after school officials learned she had been involved in a relationship with a student athlete a decade earlier. Kearney, who was UT’s first and only black head coach in any sport, resigned Jan. 5 after being told by school officials they were prepared to fire her.

Her lawsuit alleges that she admitted to the affair in October 2012 and was told by women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky that “as long as there were no other relationships, it should not be a problem.” It also alleges that other university employees (“all of whom are white males”) have not been terminated for similar offenses.

The suit specifically mentions assistant football coach Major Applewhite, who received a reprimand and a 20-month pay freeze for what the school described as a one-time indiscretion with a graduate student trainer in 2009 but was not suspended or fired. In addition, the suit points out that from 1997-2000 UT employed volleyball coach Jim Moore, who married a student athlete he coached at Northern Michigan in the early 1990s.

Kearney’s suit also alleges “a high level administrator within the University’s Athletic Department has carried on a prolonged intimate relationship of approximately three years with a subordinate employee with whom he has direct involvement in setting her pay.”

UT has a policy discouraging consensual relationships between employees and subordinates. But Kearney’s lawsuit alleges other “relationships between a professor, coach, or administrator and a student, student-athlete, or subordinate employee, are believed to be well known by the university administration and quietly disregarded and swept under the rug.”

UT officials have said they’ve reviewed Kearney’s complaints thoroughly but dispute many of the details. Patti Ohlendorf, the school’s vice president for legal affairs, issued a statement Thursday saying UT “will thoroughly review the unfounded allegations in Ms. Kearney’s lawsuit and respond through the proper legal channels.”

Ohlendorf praised Kearney as “a coach with some admirable qualities who brought success to our women’s track program, overcame great challenges, and contributed to the campus community,” but defended UT’s handling of her dismissal.

“In this case, it was evident that Ms. Kearney displayed a serious lack of judgment by having an inappropriate, intimate, long-term relationship with a member of her team,” Ohlendorf said. “The team member later reported it to university officials who pursued all appropriate action.”

Kearney, who had coached at UT since 1993, was the school’s highest-paid coach outside of football, basketball and baseball. Before her suspension, Kearney said, she was presented with a contract extension that would have paid her $397,000 per year, with raises that would have made her salary $475,000 in 2017.